Appropriate for Halloween week.

Did I share this with you before?  Click on the photo and zoom in.  I peed my pants when I opened my pantry door to find her making her self comfortable in my home.  I think she stowed away in some boxes while we were moving. She only lived a couple of minutes beyond this photo, but later as we were cleaning out the web etc. Mark found a present from her. A nice big egg sack... Thank goodness we didn't find it this spring!

Seesters

My sisters are darling.  They are my best friends and my angels.  I love this picture of all 3 of us (minus my bangs having a mind of their own ;)

Witchapalooza

Some of my dearest friends and I went to a super fun musical at Gardner Village a couple of weeks ago. I have to admit, I knew I'd have fun because of the company I was with, but I didn't expect much more than dinner and a few laughs out of the evening.  I was wrong. It was one of the funnest nights I've had in a long time! The show was terrific, we literally almost fell off of our chairs we laughed so hard. The dinner was good and the company was amazing!  I am pretty sure this has already become a tradition and is something I will do annually with these girls.  I would be totally remiss if I didn't give lots of credit to my girls for making these adorable costumes. I had nothing to do with it. I'm not a total mooch; To make up for it I chauferred everyone and treated the girls to Red Mango for dessert. (Well, second dessert if I'm being honest.)

I had a sinking sensation that something was terribly wrong....

Unfortunately, I meant "sinking" literally, and unfortunately I was right about the "terribly wrong" part. Yesterday as I was walking through my backyard, I stepped into a soft spot. Something was weird, so I kept pressing my foot, on the spot until I realized there was nothing below the grass, It felt hollow underneath. In my mind I imagined giant snake habitats, broken sprinkler pipes, large yard varmin all as possible causes. I was definitely worried I would find a problem. I ran to the garage and grabbed a hand shovel went back and dug a hole about 6" in diameter. As I pulled the grass up to reveal what lay under the mysterious patch of grass I immediately began freaking out. It was still kind of bright outside so what I initially saw was a bottomless hole. What happened after that basically consisted of me freaking out for about 3 hours. I finally had a neighbor come over who is pretty knowledgeable about Lehi geography who quickly diagnosed a bad seal on the burried irrigation pipe that runs beneath our yard. Upon further inspection we determined the hole was about 4-5 feet in diameter wide at it's widest point, and probably 3-4 feet deep at it's deepest point. I tried to take some photos, but they really don't do it justice. When we dig the rest of the grass up to fill the hole I'll snap a few more shots.

Our neighbor's little boy threw a stuffed animal down into the hole. It's a small stuffed animal.

My hand is still a few inches from the bottom here. The hole slopes down so it get's a little deeper further in.

I called the city this morning who promptly sent their water guys out to look at it. Unfortunately we found out that this "ditch" as they call it is owned privately by 3 different individuals. I called the water master who is part owner and of course his response was, "well it's not the ditch". He doesn't realize who he is dealing with. I'm sure if I told him it would just be easier for him to come fix it than to try to fight me, he probably wouldn't listen. He's coming out tomorrow to take a look at it and hopefully he'll do the right thing and make some speedy repairs. (Yes I will be hiring an inspector to approve the work.)

The first night in our house, the second time around.

I still remember the first night Mark and I slept in our house July 23rd, 2002. The fresh smell of a new house and no air conditioning. It was our first time buying a house and our builder had the power turned off on the day we closed. We weren't able to get power until 2 days later and I remember how uncomfortable it was sleeping in the heat. But we didn't care, we were home and we knew it.

Over the next 7 years we poured our heart and soul into putting in a yard all on our own, and finishing our basement, again on our own. We painted, we decorated and rearranged furniture and rooms many a time. Three of our four kids came home from the hospital to our house and Maddison spent 6 of her 8 years growing up in our house. We truly had an amazing time making memories in our home.

Last year, when we decided to move to St. George, there was no way we could sell our home. That decision was probably the best of our married life. Laying in my bed, in my room for the first time in over a year last night was even better than the first time around. After 16 hours straight of moving with little breaks, I couldn't sleep because the happiness I felt overpowered my weariness.

Home again... at last.

Science Fair

Maddi and Wyatt both entered the Science Fair at their Elementary School. It was an optional thing that they both decided to do. Maddi did hers on which hairbrush is the best at getting tangles out? She tested 3 different types of hairbrushes on different girls with different lengths of hair. Not very "Sciency" but mom's fighting with daughters over brushing their hair out in the morning is a pretty common problem. She wanted to help find a solution. In the end it was determined that a brush with "boar bristles" is the best at getting tangles out without hurting too bad.
Wyatt did his project on racing objects in flowing water. He based this off of how much he likes to race sticks or random pieces of litter in a flowing raingutter or stream of water whenever he sees one. He wanted to test which types of material will go the fastest and therefore win the race every time. He determined that wood wins over plastic or styrofoam, likely because it is heavier, but not too heavy to sink. He won 1st place for the kindergarteners and is going on to the district competition. Way to go Wyatt!

Wedding!

My sister Lisa married the love of her life, Josh on March 5th. We love him and are so happy for her! They were married in the SLC temple & had a fun reception at the Millcreek Inn.

Twins, with a picture of brother thrown in.

They obviously LOVE glasses and try them on whenever they see them.




Wyatt was having fun playing dressup at his friend Taylors. Nice Face.
Love the Pigtails!
I really hope the bond and the friendship they develop now lasts a lifetime!

Pictures!